But "social" was the whole mantra of business, a decade or two ago. Still is... "open space!"
We are all going to "collaborate" endlessly into ever higher heights of achievement.
"Social" was being integrated, per force, into the workforce.
And... real productivity dropped, and people became stressed out.
Facebook et al. aren't at odds with the contemporary corporate workplace. They just exemplify what a crap policy it is.
Imagine being forced to be on Facebook 8, 10, 12 hours a day, while trying to actually accomplish something. That's what much of the contemporary workplace has become at major corporations with which I'm familiar.
Am I bitter? A little... more than. Because they kept telling my my trouble concentrating in such environments was my fault.
Whatever you think of social media, such workplaces have not earned the right to express any opinion on the matter.
If you like e.g. "single sign-on", it should be your choice to set it up and participate. Not coercion. Not coercion holding your existing investment in various products (of which Google was and is acquiring ever more) hostage.
If what you are offering is of benefit to your users (should I use the word "customers"? -- a whole other discussion), you should be able to sell it to them -- on an "opt-in", "I'd like to use this feature" basis.
As Google+ rolled out, it became evident that it was anything but this.
True names. Then the stories -- accurate or not -- of account deletions.
I was damned if I was going to risk my longstanding Gmail account for the sake of trying out Plus. Fortunately, the integration was not so quick and thorough that I was at that time compelled to participate in Plus in order to keep that account. (Sign up for Gmail now, and you get a Plus profile, like it or not.)
Plus has some nice technical features, and some of the conversation I intersect (under a separate Google identity that I can afford to lose) during my limited interaction with it, consist of more thoughtful and interesting content.
But I'll never trust it -- Plus, that is.
Google showed us all, with Plus, the limits of their advocacy for us, the users.
We are all going to "collaborate" endlessly into ever higher heights of achievement.
"Social" was being integrated, per force, into the workforce.
And... real productivity dropped, and people became stressed out.
Facebook et al. aren't at odds with the contemporary corporate workplace. They just exemplify what a crap policy it is.
Imagine being forced to be on Facebook 8, 10, 12 hours a day, while trying to actually accomplish something. That's what much of the contemporary workplace has become at major corporations with which I'm familiar.
Am I bitter? A little... more than. Because they kept telling my my trouble concentrating in such environments was my fault.
Whatever you think of social media, such workplaces have not earned the right to express any opinion on the matter.